human behavior

A stimulus or combination of stimuli that is followed by a particular response will, upon its re-occurrence tend to be followed by the same response again. Thus, S-R connections gain its full strength on one-trail (Ormrod, 1999) or on the first pairing of the S-R connection: “contiguity, and not frequency!” (UCONN Department of Psychology, 2006). According to Guthrie repetitions neither strengthen nor weaken the connection already made.

According to Guthrie:

1. Reward and punishment play NO significant role in learning: This is because the reward and punishment are occurring after the association between stimulus and response has been made. “According to this position what arises is a principle called ‘post remity’ which says we always learn the last thing we do in response to a specific stimulus situation” (Brooks, 2006).

2. Forgetting is due to interference rather than time passing:”In other words people have so many stimulus and noise going on around them it makes it difficult to learn or remember a new principle or concept, unless that principle is constantly surrounding them” (Brooks, 2006).